SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER April 2012 F i r C a r p e t b y M a t t h e w S e n n i t t Main Features inside this issue: Chairman’s report by Graeme Lyons 2 We wish you a merry Death’s Head! 3 Fir Carpet Thera vetustata: a species new to Britain by Matthew Sennitt 4 Do you trap moths in your garden? by David Grundy, of GMS 6 Altered Perspective by Heather Martin 8 The 2012 Moth Olympics by Graeme Lyons 10 Lanzarote Moths by Mike Snelling 11 Field events 2012 12 Have you ever seen the Stag Beetle or the Rose Chafer in Sussex? 14 Sussex Moth Group’s photo competition 2012 15 Committee contacts 16 Page 2 SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER Chairmans report by Graeme Lyons What to write in spring? Things have barely started this season. This time last year Penny and I dis- covered the first Pancalia schwarzellas in Sussex since 1931. That was a nice little story that turned up just in time for the spring newsletter. Last edition was the write up of the Flame Brocade/ Crimson Speckled/media madness saga. I have nothing quite so exciting to report over this winter. No Bloxworth Snouts. Nothing. So what has happened this winter? Well, I gave a talk at Butterfly Conservation’s National Moth Recording Conference entitled ‘What Makes the Sussex Moth Group Tick?’ It went down very well and we are certainly doing something right to attract attention from BC at the national level. Our newsletter, thanks to Penny and all who contribute, is a great way of not just informing the group, but people outside the group, of what we are up to. The lively, thriving nature of the group is re- flected in the newsletter. Please keep up the good work and keep submitting articles that are fac- tual and entertaining. It’s good that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. After all, if you stand back and look at moths and what we do, it is pretty hilarious at times! Andy Phillips and the Hastings moth-ers are happy to call themselves Sussex Moth Group: Hasting Branch. They will all be sending in their subs just like regular members and submitting articles (I think we would like to give them their own regular pages) and events in the same way. They’ll also get access to our insurance but I think it is unlikely we will see an increase in attendance at the Woods Mill meetings. We moved the tables and chairs around for the last indoor meeting. This made much more sense and people seemed happier with it. Also moving into the classroom for coffee seemed like a welcome change too. We’ll stick to this new set-up if people are happy with it. Please bear in mind that it takes quite a while to get the tables and chairs into this arrangement and we have to put them back again at the end of the night. Any help do- ing so will always be greatly appre- ciated. In this edition, I announce the launch of our photographic competition and also, just as a bit of fun, an ongoing moth-listing page. So the theme for 2012 it would appear is a little friendly competition. I’m not sure how these will be taken up, but I’m certainly going to have some fun with this in 2012. Lists, cameras, traps and generators at the ready then! Let the 2012 moth Olympics begin! SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER Page 3 We wish you a merry Death’s Head! A final moth flourish to 2011 came in a deathly shape, with a Death’s Head Hawk-moth found in an East Dean garden, in East Sussex, on December 12th. Carole and David Jode reported this moth which was found dead on their neighbour’s lawn at first light; it wasn’t there at sunset the previous night. Thanks to Carole and David for sending this report in and for the photo. 2012 Membership Subscriptions Membership subscriptions are now due for the year beginning April 1st 2012, the cost remaining at £5. You can either bring your money to the AGM or post it (with your details) to the Treasurer, Alice Parfitt, 1 Sunnyside Cottages, North Street, Storrington, W. Sussex, RH20 4PB. Some members have asked about the possibility of setting up a standing order to pay their sub- scription. If this is something you would like to do, please get in contact with Alice at [email protected] Page 4 SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER Fir Carpet Thera vetustata: a species new to Britain by Matthew Sennitt The influx of exciting, colourful and rare migrants caught in the first week in October inspired me to set my moth trap on the evening of October 9th. Death’s Head Hawk-moth, Crimson Speckled, Vestal, Ni Moth, Flame Brocade and other awesome finds all seemed possible. Furthermore, the warm evening air and cloudy conditions pointed to an exhilarating catch in the morning. I was therefore somewhat disappointed to find only 27 moths in the trap on the 10th October and that such migrants as were present were old favourites, such as L-album Wainscot (1), Setaceous He- brew Character (2), Large Yellow Underwing (1) and Silver Y (1). During this purple patch I was hoping to add at least one new species to my garden list standing then at 201 macro-moths in the three years I have been recording moths. I e-mailed Colin Pratt “You're right I managed to miss the immigrant excitement, despite keeping an eye open. I was hoping to catch the tail of it last night, but no.” I had mailed Colin because there was indeed one specimen I hadn’t immediately recognised, a greyish carpet well marked, but drab by the standards of the moth-hunting of that exhilarating week. The moth was amazingly inert, strongly resisting removal from its pot, and then moving minimally to re-compose itself when I finally shook it out. As a consequence I managed only 2 views of the moth even though I took about a dozen photographs. One of these I sent to Colin with the suggestion that it was an out of season Blue-bordered Carpet; the species most similar in my usual references, photographs in the UK moths and Norfolk moths websites and the illus- trations of Richard Lewington in Waring and Townsend. Colin thought this was unlikely and suggested I check out the Garden Carpet variation ‘thules’; certainly a better seasonal choice. However, two things made this very unlikely for me. Firstly was the behaviour, or indeed lack of behaviour, shown by this moth, as I have always found Gar- den Carpet difficult to photograph, as it rarely settles easily. Secondly, and more clearly seen in the second view of the moth, Colin pointed out that the tip of the abdomen was turned up. I sent this photograph immediately to Colin and received a cautious but intriguing reply, ‘I am suffi- ciently concerned over a continental possibility that I've submitted it to The Moth Man at the Natural History Museum.’ SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER Page 5 Pictures by Matthew Sennitt By co-incidence, both Martin Honey (a.k.a. the Moth Man) at the Natural History Museum and I were away for the next two weeks, so it was not until October 31st that I heard from Colin again and then just asking whether I had kept the specimen of the moth. Unfortunately I had released it on the day of capture, not realising its significance and so my photographs were the only re- cord. Four further e-mails over the next two days asked for more details of the capture and mys- teriously whether there had been any plantings of Silver Fir in my vicinity. The game was on. On November 2nd I received an enthusiastic telephone call from Colin to tell me he had sent me an e-mail that I should look at immediately. It contained the instruction:-Please find below the recent correspondence on your Carpet moth. Great news! It said:- ‘’My colleague (Jaan Viidalepp, author of the Larentiinae part of The geometrid moths of Europe) has responded and confirmed my identification. It is a male specimen of Thera vetustata ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775), a species new to Britain!’’ Wow. My drab little carpet was famous and word was out. A Christmas fairy tale? Apparently almost the first person Martin Honey saw at the British Entomological and Natural History Society meeting on November 5th. came up to him asking for details of the species. Over the next few weeks some details of its distribution and habitat came to me via Colin and Martin. It is a widely distributed but uncommon moth from Central Europe, where the larvae feed on Common Silver Fir in mountainous regions. However, specimens have also been taken where Silver Fir is absent but Norway Spruce occurs, making this possibly additional larval food plant. The adults in Europe fly from May to September. A paper is currently being written for the Entomologists Gazette. After a very brief discussion we decided that the most apt English name for the species was Fir Carpet, reflecting its known larval food plant. We may never be one hundred percent certain whether this specimen journeyed to England in the glittering company of Death’s Head Hawk- moths, Crimson Speckleds, Vestals, Ni Moths and Flame Brocades or whether it was an introduc- tion, but it is now one to look out for in the future.